Abbott government’s “policy” on climate change. Turnbull called it ‘bullshit’, and bashed it on 8th February 2010 in parliament. And then kept to it…
“If the carbon tax was ‘socialism masquerading as environmentalism,’ then the Abbott government’s Direct Action plan is corporatism. It relies on big government using big regulation to pick big corporate winners. The irony is that it will be introduced just as the last vestiges of the most iconic corporatist policy are coming to an end. The central feature of the Direct Action plan is the Emissions Reduction Fund. The new fund is set to commence on Jul 1, 2014, and will be armed with initial allocations of $300 million, $500 million and $750 million over the forward estimates. The policy is likely to cost substantially more over time as the 2010 policy document anticipated that the fund would spend an average of $1.2 billion annually through to 2020. There is a real threat that the Direct Action policy will become a quasi ‘industry assistance’ or ‘co-investment’ scheme to prop up failing companies in the name of reducing carbon emissions.”
Lane, A. 2014. Corporatism masquerading as environmentalism Review – Institute of Public Affairs
66.1 (May 2014): 20-23.
marchudson.net 